Using spot for bait

19 posts in this topic

A few weeks ago, I was catching spot like it was going out of style. I cut up one of them to use for bait because I had read they worked well.

It was a little harder than it looked. I cut the meat from the bones more or less like a fillet. Then I cubed the fillet and put that on a hook. The meat didn't stay on the hook well and all I caught with it was a ray.

I have read some people fish them whole for flounder. How do you rig it for that purpose?

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If you want to fish them whole (which is the only way I fish with them) attach a 3 way swivel to the end of your line, tie on a piece of mono to attach a sinker to (length varies depending on who you talk to and the conditions, I've used from 6" to 24"), then attach another longer leader at least 36" for you hook. I usually put my hook in their mouth and come out right around the nose, some people put through the top of the fish others in the tail, I guess that's a preference don't know if any is better than the other.

I never fish with cut spot, I use croaker and it's about as tough a bait as you'll find, I use the whole fillet most times, sometimes I'll cut it in half long way, so you get a piece of bait 1" to "2 wide and at least 5" to 6" long, bigger bait bigger fish, keep that in mind.

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Well if big flounder or stripers are around they won't likely pass on a live spot if they see it. You might also want to try the new "Berkley Gulp Pogy" (or Porgy) I heard of several catches of nice sized flounder even citation sized on these little guys, so I just picked up my first pack to give them a try, might be a little better suited if you're to casting towards some structure or something.

I've never fished up that way before so I can't give you much beyond general advice, but down here on structure in particular live spot is the bait of choice for big flounder, little ones will leave them alone so might not catch as many but if you do catch one its almost always a keeper.

I have caught a couple in the 17.5 to 18" range on spot this year. . . but never anything smaller than that, good luck.

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I have been using the 3 and 4 inch pogy with great results ... I have just started using the 6 inch bait swimmers by gulp with great success too , less fish but bigger fish.

Spot ... I scale them and filletthem then cut into strips length ways so however long the fillet is is how long the strips are ... Croaker stays on the hook better but spot produces better and you'll get stripers also not too many stripers on croaker strips. Live is the ticket but if you cant get live fresh dead will work .... try butterflying the spot !

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A buddy of mine and I are going to the pier at Pt. Lookout on Friday night.

Word on the street is that night/dark is a good time to catch flounder and rockfish. Is that because they come in to feed on spot and croaker? If that is the case can you still catch spot and croaker in the dark or are they hiding?

I suppose even if I can't catch any spot, I can try the gulp porgys.

If I can find them, do I butterfly them by slitting the belly anus to throat? Do you remove the guts or do you leave them there? Do you just hook it through the nose like YoungGun11 suggested?

Hengstthomas are you fishing from a kayak usually or are you shore fishing? I have seen your reports. You do some impressive work!

Thank you both for your input. I appreciate you answering all my really basic questions. I really want to learn how to fish in the ocean well. Thanks guys.

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Yeah, there are a lot of lights all the way down the length of the pier. There are several sets of light poles on the end. Here's a picture of the pier. You can see the lights over my left ear and another pole in the foreground. The lights extend all the way to the shore.

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We headed south about 1800. The ride was uneventful other than a rousing discussion of terrorism and freedom. My partner for the evening studied Middle Eastern Studies in college. Alltogether enjoyable.

We stopped at the Tackle Box in Lexington Park to get some bait. Bloodworms, squid and some gulp porgys on the menu.

We stopped at Wendys for some to go burgers and we figured we'd eat them while we were catching some minnows with the minnow trap. We threw out our trap and waited about 20 minutes. We caught a few shrimp but we didn't catch any minnows. After a little more trial and effort, we got a couple.

The pier was pretty crowded. We got 3 or 4 light poles down the pier. We threw our lines out, two for spot/croakers and one for some flounder under the pier. Reports were slow for much of anything.

After an hour or two, my partner went to grab the minnow trap. He hasn't done much fishing and hadn't caught a fish in probably 10 or 15 years. As soon as he walked away, just out of ear shot for me to yell, I got a hit. It was a 3 inch spot. I was glad I didn't holler too loud.

I filleted the sides off and cut up according to suggestions and threw it out on the flouder pole when we ran out of minnows. My partner had a hard time feeling the fish hit as the weight dragged across the bottom. So he had a hard time setting the hook.

When we ran out of cut spot, I hooked up the whole filleted fish as we discussed above. I tossed it out. I set the hook on another spot and had my buddy reel it in. When he got it in, I hooked the spot on the big pole and heaved it back out.

Probably 15 minutes later, the big 12 foot rod starts bouncing. When that one starts bouncing, something is going on! So I started reeling and felt nothing. I thought the line had snapped or something. I kept reeling and apparently the fish made a bee line for the pier because I caught up to him less than 10 feet out. I tried to set the hook on him because it was the first time I had had the slack out of the line after he hooked himself. I got what I thought was a good set. I got him out of the water and it was a big bluefish. It was probably 23-24 inches and maybe 4-6 pounds. I haven't caught a lot of bluefish so it is a very rough guess. The point is, it was pretty nice for the pier. I reeled a little more and he threw the hook. He flopped back in the water and sat there for a minute stunned. Then he swam away.

When I got the line up, I realized that he had sawed through my 25lb leader with the teeth. It was a nice try anyway. My buddy was excited.

We caught several more spot through the night. All of them went on to the 12 footer but we only had spot bitten in half for the rest of the evening. The spot were all bitten in the half that didn't have the hook in it. It was pretty crazy to see the teeth marks and the perfect cutout of the bluefish jaw. I think I didn't have enough leader going to the spot. The bluefish couldn't get to the whole fish without running into more line or the weight.

The last highlight was my buddy catching a nice 9 inch spot. I hadn't see one that big. I was almost sure it had to be a croaker based on the size but it wasn't.

We wrapped it up around 4:30 and got back to Alexandria around 6:30.

It was a fun trip. Thanks again for your help on using the spot for bait. Hopefully next time, I can actually convert!

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ive read about it many times never used it. attach a snap swivel to ur line and a sinker large enuff to hold bottom. cast it out as far as u can. take 4-6' of leader material 30-50lb should do. attach a nother snap swivel or just a snap to 1 end and a large hook (octopus circle or hook of ur choise) to the other. hook the bait(live) to the hook (however u would like) and snap the snap onto ur line toss the bait into the water and let the live bait swim out to the sinker which will be hopfully over the bar. and wait.